Amarillo, Texas
August 29, 2007
Wheat breeders are working to put
a a "little muscle" into bread, in addition to helping producers
get better yields, said a Texas
Agricultural Experiment Station researcher.
Bread producers need stronger
gluten flours, said Dr. Jackie Rudd, Experiment Station state
wheat breeder in Amarillo. Gluten is the protein in wheat that
allows bread to expand and hold the shape.
At a meeting of the Wheat Quality
Council, Hayden Wands, director of procurement for Sara Lee
Corp. said flours with a stronger gluten are needed for breads
to ensure they will not squash during stacking on the grocery
shelves, Rudd said.
Wands also talked about the many new bread products the company
offers with ingredients such as blueberries, which further
accentuate the need for stronger flours, Rudd said.
In recent tests across the state, Experiment Station wheats have
ranked among the top performers when tested for protein content
(gluten), seed size and test weight (milling attributes), dough
strength (baking), and disease resistance and yields, he said.
In addition, Texas Cooperative Extension wheat variety trials
across the state have as many as five Texas A&M University
system wheats ranked in the top 10. For complete results of the
variety trials, go to
http://amarillo.tamu.edu/programs/agronomy/ .
Rodney Mosier, Texas Wheat Producers Board executive vice
president, said the board's priorities for their research
dollars used to be focused mainly on developing wheats that were
higher yielding, drought-tolerant
varieties. These wheats had average baking qualities and disease
resistance.
In recent years, the board's priorities have changed, Mosier
said. Funding now includes a priority for higher milling and
baking qualities with improved disease and insect resistance.
"The board has been very pleased with the funding it has
provided for ongoing research with Texas A&M, which has provided
excellent results," he said. "Just this past year, the Wheat
Quality Council recognized Texas A&M
for producing wheats with excellence in milling and baking
qualities."
These wheat lines are now being marketed to producers, Rudd
said. Newly released are TAM 304, a good disease resistant
irrigated variety has been licensed to
Scott Seed Co. of
Hereford; and TAM 203, showing
disease resistance and excellence statewide, has been licensed
to AgriPro Wheat in
Vernon, he said.
The Experiment Station has had two other recent releases that
are topping experiment trial data, Rudd said. TAM 111, the
leading grown variety in the High Plains for both dryland and
irrigated wheat, is licensed to AgriPro; and TAM 112, with
excellent dryland yields and greenbug resistance, is licensed to
Watley Seed Co. of Spearman.
Experiment Station wheat varieties have long been known for
excellence in dryland yields, he said. However, in the past five
or six years, a concentrated effort of increased testing and
quality monitoring by Dr. Lloyd Rooney at the Wheat Quality Lab
in College Station has improved the baking and milling quality.
"Our reputation for good dryland yields has been maintained, but
now we are recognized for excellent bread-baking quality," Rudd
said.
That doesn't mean the producer's needs for high yields, disease
resistance and pest resistance are taking a back seat, though,
he said.
Rudd said the newest Texas varieties were discussed at this
year's field day for Great Plains wheat breeders in Fort Collins
as being the best in leaf rust and stripe rust resistance.
That is due in part, he said, to the dedicated work of Dr.
Ravindra Devkota, a research scientist from Bushland, who has
spent significant time making wheat selections in South Texas
where these rusts start.
"That's why our material is not just good across the High
Plains, but also the rest of the state," Rudd said. "Texas A&M
varieties are grown on more than 50 percent of the High Plains,
but much less in the rest of the
state."
With the increased disease resistance, though, that figure will
go up, he said, because the new experimental lines in the
breeding plots are looking even better than what is now in the
field.
"We have more good material than we can put into the
marketplace," Rudd said. "It's an excellent problem to have.
It's been nice to be able to discard some lines that are better
than wheat we currently have, because
we know what we have in the pipeline is even better.
"We hope this will lead to increased exports for Texas wheat,"
he said. "The idea is that importers of U.S. wheat will select
Texas wheat based on quality rather than cheap price. The U.S.
has consistently been the least-cost provider of wheat, but we
want Texas wheats to be sought out for their milling and baking
quality."
by Kay Ledbetter
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